The Hurricane is one of the best films you will see made from one of the worst screenplays you can imagine. The characters are so horribly one-dimensional that it makes you want to rip your hair out watching a powerful story being massacred. That we still have a watchable, nay good, film at the end of it all is nothing short of a miracle. A miracle worked by Denzel Washington, Norman Jewison and Rubin 'The Hurricane' Carter.

The film depicts the struggle of Rubin Carter, champion boxer, who was imprisoned for 20 years for a murder he did not commit, framed by racially-motivated antagonists in the police force.  All kinds of people fought for his release. Bob Dylan wrote songs and protest movements sprang up all over, all to no avail. After years of appeal after appeal being turned down, Carter finally managed to establish his innocence, thanks to new evidence that pointed to him being framed. The evidence was dug up by a group of four people working to free him, with help from his lawyers. The film plays fast and loose with the facts. In one particularly terrible scene where Carter loses a bout, the filmmakers imply that the result stemmed from racial bias, although the facts were otherwise. The villains are protrayed as sub-human, with their only goal apparently being to destroy Carter.  But despite all that, it has a strong emotional core.

Denzel Washington's performance is absolutely perfect as he plays a strong-willed man who never succumbs to his circumstances and is prepared to fight for his life. He takes recourse to writing his own book in an attempt to tell his story to the world and it pays off, as it inspires a young teenager, Lesra, to  come visit him and work for his freedom.  While Rubin Carter is not as stoic as Andy Dufresne in The Shawshank Redemption, he is every bit as determinted and intelligent. It is no small matter to keep hope alive while spending twenty years without a glimpse of the external world, and Denzel Washington brings out his character's struggles in dealing with the enormity of this task brilliantly.

Bob Dylan's song "Hurricane" turns up at multiple junctures and provides an extra jolt to proceedings. In summary, while it is hard to buy many of the plot developments, the movie is still extremely powerful on an emotional level and works as a parable more than as a real story, although it is helped in no small measure by the fact that we know it is based on events that actually did happen.